1. Field of the Invention (Technical Field)
The present invention is related to systems for destroying or inactivating biological entities and/or chemical compounds, including but not limited to biowarfare and chemical warfare agents, using microwave activated media.
2. Background Art
Note that the following discussion refers to a number of publications and references. Discussion of such publications herein is given for more complete background of the scientific principles and is not to be construed as an admission that such publications are prior art for patentability determination purposes.
Diazoluminomelanin (DALM), a water soluble polymer and organic semiconductor, is known to be activated as an anti-bacterial solution when exposed to microwave radiation. While microwaves alone can kill most bacteria or spores, such as anthrax spores, the presence of a microwave-activated chemical media can enhance that kill by increasing the kill ratio (the number of viable spores at the end of the exposure divided by the number of viable spores at the beginning of the exposure) or reducing the required time to achieve a desired kill ratio. See, for example U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,303,316 and 6,569,630, U.S. Patent Application Publication Nos. 2003/0143629 and 2003/0211005, and Kiel, et al., “Directed Killing of Anthrax Spores by Microwave-Induced Cavitation”, IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science, vol. 30, no. 4, August 2002, pp. 1482-1488.